I have worked with 2 kinds of project managers during my tenure in IT industry. The first manager was very laid back and he did not used to bother much but was very open for any ideas and inputs which i really liked. He did not care if we come on time or even if we are bit late, he was only concerned with the output and the deadlines and this is the kind of manager i would like to work with. The 2nd manager was  not at all professional, he did not use to listen to any of our views at all, we could not  have a proper two way conversation with him, it was always him speaking, but he was knowledgeable and had a lot of insights.

My preference would be a project manager who was a stickler for following and implementing projects according to PMI guidelines.  I figure that I can just roll with what ever personality that they have.  In my work experience, the organization's culture dominated the approaches to project management, so much so that PMI parameters were ignored or omitted.  The multiple layers of research projects lend themselves well to the PMI model, but my project managers in the academic setting were so easily distracted by competing prospective projects, so we didn't always arrive at a deliverable or end-product, which violates the spirit of project management.  PMI provides a framework for prioritizing our project focus, but when the goal is to make a big splash with the President/CEO or be the model organization for the institutional strategic plan the waters get muddied.  Part of the reason I'm beginning to favor private industry over the academic environment is that I believe more consistently executed project management true to the PMI model will be implemented.

I have been working under my first project manager for about three years now. My manager almost acts like more of a friend to me than a manager. He is very hands off and trusts me to get a lot of my work done, but I feel like that is because I have showed him that I don't need someone constantly over my shoulder. He doesn't check on my progress constantly and if I ask him to review something or for his input he will take time out of his schedule to help me. I absolutely love working for him and have learned a lot in my 3 years of work. That being said, I sometimes feel like I am too friendly with my manager and sometimes I am just expected to work overtime and do more than everyone else. I feel like there diffidently needs to be a balance with your manager, but I could not ask for a better manager at my first job.

There are many qualities required for a good project manager, but I think it all boils down to the level of emotional intelligence that the manager can display. There are 5 key components of emotional intelligence, that if mastered, result in an effective project manager and people leader: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill. If a project manager if able to understand their own role, regulate their own emotions, motivate their team members while still being able to immerse themselves in others' points of view, and express their goals/feelings in a way that builds rather than destroys relationships, then that person will certainly be a successful project manager. I have been on several projects where the project manager may have the ability to communicate goals and objectives, but lacked the ability to motivate me and other team members. On the flip side, I have also had project managers who understood how to provide the bigger picture of the project objective and make each team member feel valued and emphasized their contributions. This project manager understood that the greater the emotional intelligence of the project manager, the more effective they are, and actively displayed that. They humanized their interaction with the team, it was not always about the project, but about the people working on the project and that made all the difference.